Should I Consider Pursuing a Baking Career?

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The Pros and Cons of Baking Careers

The ability to work with dough and create perfectly raised breads, flaky piecrusts and other delicious flour-based baked items is as much a talent as sculpturing, drawing or writing poems. You can be taught the fundamentals, but ultimately, the master baker is the one who instinctively knows exactly when that dough is ready to pop into the oven for a golden-brown, deliciously light and eye-appealing food item.

It’s this special talent more than anything that drives the novice baker to become a professional in the craft of bread and pastry production. The hours are long, with most of them spent on your feet. You are one of the first people to start their workday, sometimes rising as early as two o’clock in the morning. You need a strong back, strong arms and a lot of stamina, as you’ll be lifting heavy bags of flour and sugar, carrying large mixing bowls and often working with heavy kitchen equipment. You’ll probably earn an income of not much more than $24,000 a year and find your job often repetitive.

There are advantages to a baking career, however. You don’t need more than a high school diploma to receive an entry-level baking position. Many bakers are willing to hire an apprentice with good aptitude to teach the skills involved with baking. With a culinary arts degree, you can learn the challenging aspects of making gourmet desserts and secure a job with a high-class restaurant, or with hotels, casinos, bakeries, cafes or catering services. You’ll have the chance to express your creativity, a choice in locations, and even become your own business.

Your Mobility and Your Health

While desk jobs usually bring with them a lucrative income, they can also present a toll on your health. That stationary aspect can cause an early middle-aged spread unless you faithfully follow an exercise routine. Bakers are constantly in motion, bending, lifting, carrying, walking, and actually stay physically fit, despite the temptation of their products. You may be a hefty baker with an undeniable sweet tooth, but you’ll be constantly burning calories during your workday.

The Quality of Self-Esteem

A successful baker is a popular one. It doesn’t take long for word of mouth to direct the friends and relatives of satisfied customers to the source of their purchased breads, cakes and pastry items. The community holds good bakers in esteem. It’s very difficult not to take pride in your baking career when everyone else is raving about it.

Baking Careers Choices

As with all aspects of professional food production, baking is a culinary art. Those who demonstrate the craftsmanship of producing both delicious and beautifully presented breads and desserts are welcome within just about any industry that features baked products. Your choices as a baker extend from working for a large industry, distributing baked products for grocers and restaurants, to serving baked products on a cruise ship. It is a channel for your creativity. The better you are at decorating cakes, creating signature desserts or presenting masterful centerpieces, the more desirable you are to high-end restaurants and hotels.

An estimated three percent of bakers eventually choose self-employment. Self-employed bakers state their occupation is a very satisfying life-style. Some are constantly in demand for baking cakes for weddings, birthdays and special events, while others have a reputation for baking the best bread products and cookies in town. Some choose to expand their skills by including pastry items, creating a mouth-watering window display that’s very difficult to ignore.

A good baker can set up shop or find a job just about anywhere. While it’s considered a competitive job, the turnover rate is high, with the average novice baker becoming discouraged with a baker career within the first five years. It takes perseverance, an innate knowledge of the quality of your mixed, cut or blended ingredients, enthusiasm for experimentation and an artistic eye to become a good baker. The rewards are self-satisfaction, a good reputation and a life-style that allows you to live wherever you want and work for a large variety of different types of food industries.